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Inbound shipments

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The purpose of an inbound shipment is to:

  • simplify the reception of goods by consolidating several orders and order lines into a shipment, for which one single reception note can be printed
  • be able to define landed costs, which are costs over and above the price paid to the supplier for the goods and which need to be distributed across all the order line received.

An inbound shipment can be created in the following routines:

  • via the Work with inbound shipments menu item
  • when confirming a reception note via the Confirm purchase order reception note menu item.

Landed costs

Landed cost is a term given to cover those costs, such as freight, duty and insurance that are over and above the price paid for the goods. These are incurred by the buyer during the transportation of goods from the seller to the buyer and subsequently in to the warehouse location. In various organisations the term “total landed cost” is sometimes taken to be the sum of all the landed cost plus the net purchase price.

Terms of delivery
Fundamental to the overall design of the Landed Cost functionality is the recognition that the terms of delivery, under which the goods are purchased, defines the level and type of additional costs which may be incurred. Furthermore, it also defines where the ownership and liability of the goods changes hands between the seller and the buyer. In the Terms of delivery table the Landed cost req field denotes whether landed costs are required or not. If landed costs are required for the terms of delivery defined on the purchase order header, then this fact is registered on each order line. The Calc at order entry field controls if discrete landed costs should be calculated automatically when the order is entered into the system.

Shipment of order lines
The delivery of purchase orders can be made in a variety of ways ranging from a single order line through to a consignment, or shipment, covering many purchase orders, which may be from different suppliers. A single order line may be received on multiple shipments. The costs associated with the delivery can also vary between those which are specific to an order line, and those that are relative to the shipment as a whole.

Entry of landed costs at two levels

To handle all the above situations and the different types of landed costs, IBS Enterprise has been designed to allow costs to be entered at the following two levels:

Inbound shipments Purchase order lines
  • Created to allow the order lines received in a single consignment to be grouped together under a unique identity
  • Costs are distributed across all received lines
  • Distribution may be based upon seven cost allocation methods:
    • VA = Value
    • PC = Percentage
    • GW = Gross Weight
    • NW = Net Weight
    • GV = Gross Volume
    • NV = Net Volume
    • QT = Quantity
  • Costs may be entered in any defined currency
  • Goods may be received directly into stock, or held awaiting a cost check prior to booking the shipment once the accurate costs are known.
  • Discrete costs for an individual order line
  • Automatically calculated from tables based upon the “from” and “to” points together with item-related elements such as weight and commodity code
  • Costs may be additional to those at shipment level
    • Goods may be received directly into stock, or held awaiting a cost check prior to booking the shipment once the accurate costs are known.

Typically, only one of the above levels will be used to record the costs. However, in certain instances individual lines in a shipment may attract discrete costs for one or more lines, for example where one of the items in a container needs special packaging inside the container to prevent it or the others from being damaged.

Landed cost type table

The information in the Landed cost type table defines the valid landed cost types and controls how the discrete costs should be calculated. The table consists of the following three parts:

  • General information (applies for both distributed and discrete costs)
    • The type and its description, plus the fictitious item to use when generating bookkeeping transactions
    • Default cost allocation method
  • Key values (only applies for discrete costs)
    • Rules for calculating, for example “from point”, “to point”, how, by and any specific item-related element
  • Key details (only applies for discrete costs)
    • Actual values, for example the actual cost per gross volume
    • Values according to the rules, for example, commodity code, from country, etc.

The following image outlines the different parts:

Await cost check function

It is to be recognised that the ability to define that landed costs are mandatory for a purchase order, will mean that inevitably there will be times when costs are not available at the time of goods reception and therefore the goods are not able to be booked into stock. The main purpose of this function is to avoid booking the costs for a reception until all costs are known.

Shipment status

As you work your way through the different stages in the shipment cycle, the system automatically assigns status codes for both shipment lines and shipment header. You can easily view this information, through the Inbound shipments enquiry. The status codes for shipment header are:

Status Description
10 The shipment has been created.
30 The shipment has been partially or completely received (i.e. one or all, order line(s) have been received).
45 All order lines on the shipment are received and closed.
60 All order lines on the shipment have been booked. The shipment is completed.

Note: Purchase order lines have their own status. See About purchase order entry.

Enquiries and printouts

  • Purchase order enquiry
  • Inbound shipments enquiry to access information about shipment lines, costs, receipts and pallets.
  • Print inbound shipments

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